Critical Essays – Getting Started

Ian Yule

Critical Essays

Are worth 40% of your final grade 1 essay in Intermediate 1 (45 mins) 2 essays in Intermediate 2 (90 mins) 2 essays in Higher (90 mins)

Genre

In Intermediate 1 you can choose your essay from any genre in which you feel confident

Drama Prose Poetry Film and TV Drama Language

Intermediate 2 and Higher

You must write two essays from two different genres

For example One essay from prose (eg a short story) One essay from drama (a play)

Higher

One difference is that there are two sections in prose:

Prose Fiction (novels, short stories) Prose Non Fiction (biographies, travel

writing) In Int 1 and Int 2 you can write about a non

fiction book in any prose question. In Higher you must choose from the right section.

1. Choose your questions carefully

The exam board allows you 5 minutes to think about your question in the 45 minutes.

Make sure that you think that you know enough to answer the question. A short plan writing down your quotations may help.

Better to spend time planning than to be 10 minutes into a question and realise you have made a mistake.

2. Read your question carefully

Underline or use a highlighter pen to emphasise key words in the question.

Make sure that you use these key words in your answer – it well help your mark by establishing what we call relevance – that is you are actually answering the question!

Remember you need to answer both parts of the question – that is what is in the first sentence and in the second.

For example

Choose a poem which described a childhood experience.

State what the experience was and go on to show how the poet used poetic techniques to help make it real to you.

You might choose to highlight:

Choose a poem which described a childhood experience.

State what the experience was and go on to show how the poet used poetic techniques to help make it real to you.

The key word was HOW

State what the experience was and go on to show how the poet used poetic techniques to help make it real to you.

Your essay is not just a summary of the text Your essay must comment on techniques

Introductory paragraph

Use these key words to help you assemble an introductory paragraph

In ‘Mid Term Break’ Seamus Heaney describes the childhood experience of his brother’s death. He helps to make this experience real to his readers through his use of ….

Oops what did he use?

The SQA are not always cruel. They put a helpful box at the top of each section giving you ideas you can use in your essay. For example the Int 2 poetry box says …

Answers in this section should refer to the text and to such relevant features as: word choice, tone, imagery, structure, content, rhythm, theme, sound, ideas …

That may help you to write paragraphs about Heaney’s use of structure Heaney’s use of sound And so on … you can write about things

which are not in the box providing they form part of a relevant answer to your question.

On the subject of relevance

Use topic sentences to form a relevant structure. One you have used the language of the question in paragraph one don’t forget to use it again.

A further way Heaney makes the childhood experience real to his readers is through his use of sound.

How many quotations should I use?

It depends on how much you can write about them.

It is doubtful that you will be ‘safe’ in your preparation for a critical essay exam if you know less than 8 quotations.

YES YOU DO HAVE TO MEMORISE AND LEARN STUFF FOR ENGLISH EXAMS. YOU CAN NOT PASS WITHOUT REVISING.

Things to avoid in your essays

This is advice for all levels, but especially for Intermediate 2 and Higher.

Avoid using the word “I” unless it is in a quotation you plan to write about.

Let us begin …

In my class we have been studying “Mid Term Break” by Seamus Heaney. I think it’s a good poem about a childhood experience and in this essay I will show how the poet made it real to me.

Nice answer - if critical essays were personal essays – but they are not. They are formal pieces of writing, and formal pieces of writing have a few rules.

Formal essay rules

1. Avoid speaking about yourself. In ‘Mid Term Break’ Seamus Heaney tells

his readers about the personal experience of his brother’s death. He does this through his use of structure, sound and alliteration.

Avoid abbreviations / contractions

The writer isn’t saying …. Becomes The writer is not saying … (If there are contractions in your quotations

then of course do not change them.)

Use inverted commas

Your quotations should begin and end with inverted commas

Seamus Heaney helps the reader to hear the bells through his use of alliteration: “counting bells knelling classes to a close.”

Higher and Int 2 students note that the way to introduce a quotation is with a colon (:)

In conclusion

You will lose marks if you don’t finish your essay with a conclusion.

Use the language of conclusion In conclusion … Finally … To sum up …

There’s nothing new in the conclusion

In conclusion Seamus Heaney successfully shares the childhood experience of his brother’s death with his readers. In particular, his use of alliteration to draw attention to how young his brother was: “a four foot box, a foot for every year” helps the reader to understand how awful the tragedy was and how sad everyone must have felt.